Raising and lowering regulators



June 23 1970 PRIESTMAN 99 RAISING AND LOWERING REGULATORS Filed Jan. 10,1969 2 Sh'eets$heet 1 J 3 19 Pl D. PRIESTMAN 3,51 ,199

me ausmc AND LOWERING REGULATORS Filed Jan. 10, 1969 3 Sheets-Sheet 2United States Patent 3,516,199 RAISING AND LOWERING REGULATORS FrancisDennis Priestman, Coventry, England, assignor to Rootes Motors Limited,London, England, a British company Filed Jan. 10, 1969, Ser. No. 790,360Int. Cl. Ef 11/52, 11/44 U.S. C]. 49-40 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE A lever type regulator for raising and lowering a curvedarticle through a curved path which regulator comprises a leverrotatable in a vertical plane having means at one end to engage thebottom of the article, the lever being flexible to permit said one endto move transversely to said vertical plane during raising and loweringof the article.

and a gear which engages a quadrant attached to the.

lever, the free end of the lever moving in a substantially verticalplane and engaging, usually through a roller, in a guideway providedalong the bottom of the article.

It is an object of the invention to adapt a lever type of regulatorsuitable for fiat articles to a regulator suitable for raising andlowering curved articles.

The invention provides a lever type regulator for raising and loweringan article which is curved about a horizontal axis (or axes) and isguided for up and clown movement in an arcuate path corresponding to thecurvature of the article whereby during such up and down movement thebottom of the article and a guideway attached to it have a horizontalcomponent of movement perpendicular to the length of the said bottom ofthe article, in which regulator the lever is flexible for movement ofthe free end in the direction of said component and the said free end isconstrained to move in the said direction with the aritcle as it risesand falls.

Preferably the lever is of U-shape to provide the required flexibility,one limb of the U-shape being attached adjacent its end to the quadrantand the free end of the other limb engaging the article.

It is preferred that the curved article is a vehicle door glass and theremainder of the specification will be related thereto. However, thescope of the invention is in no way limited to this application sincethe principle of the invention is equally applicable to vehiclewindscreens, curved doors or shutters or the like, and also PatentedJune 23, 1970 ICE to curved members made of materials other than glass.

A specific embodiment of a regulator according to the invention will nowbe described, by way of example, with reference to the drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is an elevation of the regulator;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the regulator;

FIG. 3 is a front view of the lever; and

FIG. 4 is a side view of the lever.

The regulator, which is intended for raising and lowering a curvedwindow glass 7 in a door of a vehicle indicated at 8 on FIG. 2,comprises a quadrant 10 rotatable about a pivot axis 11 by means of ahandle (not shown) on a spindle 12 carrying a gear (not shown) engagingthe quadrant.

Attached to the quadrant is a lever arm 14 of which the free end carriesa roller 15 running in a channel 9 attached to the lower edge of thewindow glass. The lever 14 is of U-shape (see FIGS. 2 and 4) to provideflexibility and is attached by its shorter limb 14a to the quadrant.

The flexibility of the lever permits the roller 15 to follow in theplane of the paper as seen in FIG. 2- the horizontal component ofmovement of the lower edge of the glass as it follows the curvature ofthe glass during its up and down movements.

I claim:

1. A lever type regulator for raising and lowering an article which iscurved about at least one horizontal axis through a correspondinglycurved path comprising a lever, means to swing the lever about a fixedaxis, and a guide at one end of the lever for engaging a guidewayextending along a lower edge of the article wherein the improvementcomprises constructing the lever so that it is resiliently flexible in aplane extending transversely to the plane in which the lever swings sothat the guide can follow movement of the guideway transverse to theguideway as the article is raised and lowered.

2. A lever type regulator as claimed in claim 1 wherein the lever isU-shaped having a long limb and a short limb, said means for swingingthe lever acting on the short limb of the lever and the guide beingmounted at the free end of the long limb.

3. A lever type regulator as claimed in claim 1 in which the article isa vehicle door glass guided in a vehicle door.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,798,761 7/1957 Himka 49227 XFOREIGN PATENTS 955,865 4/1964 Great Britain.

J. KARL BELL, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 49227, 350

